desire 1

[Guest guest]

Dear Sri vaishNava perunthagaiyeer,

 

In sreemadh raamaayaNam, we all know the 'desire' or 'love' or 'kaamam' in sanskrit played a great role in shaping the story. In this series starting with this post, we will study in detail, how this 'kaamam' played its major part

 

first, in framing the story and

then in pushing or moving the story.

 

Before proceeding further, I want to make it clear that my intention is not to describe or discuss sex in religious websites. This is more a study how this one single word 'kaamam' has played its part in shaping and pushing raamaayaNam.

 

Those bhaagavathaas, who have puritan points of views, with their preset conclusions, theories, or notions, on and about discussing 'kaamam' in raamaayaNam - please keep aside yourself, for a while.

 

Similarly those persons who have conclusions that raama avathaaram is only for killing of raavaNa, please stay put for a while – for, if the supreme lord raama or naaraayaNa want 'ELIMINATION OF RAAVANA' only, he would have done it with his sankalpam alone – 'sankalpa maathram', or like other earlier avathaarams like narasimha, just undertake that job at the right moment and be done with.

 

Again if it is elimination of raavaNa alone is the avathaara kaaryam, then where is the need for all these

 

coming to bhoolOkam,

marrying seethaa,

losing her in forest,

then suffering separation

sending troops of vaanaraas,

searching and locating her

constructing a bridge in ocean etc

and then going in war and eliminate raavaNa.

 

So let us start. To begin with, let us look at the dictionary meaning first, for this word 'kaamam' -- Monier Williams Sanskrit English dictionary says --

Kaama – noun means

 

wish,

desire,

longing,

love,

affection,

pleasure,

enjoyment

Object of love or desire or of pleasure

Love or desire personified

Name of god of love

 

The hero sree raama and heroine sree seethaa are the central characters in sreemadh raamaayaNam as we all know. They were not indulging in this 'kaamam' – love or enjoyment – or pleasure seeking between themselves except in uththara kaaNdam which is the last part in the kaavyam [which many say 'is not really composed by sage vaalmeeki' - on that I am not going to discuss at all].

 

That leads us to conclude, "raamaayaNam is NOT A LOVE STORY BETWEEN THE HERO AND HEROINE".

 

Even if they indulged in, and vaalmeeki also describes same, in certain portions of the kaavyam, it is legitimate, and becomes legitimate kaamam, between a husband and his 'righteous wedded' wife. Or to put it in other way, the hero sought his heroine, and between them, if kaamam laden scenes happened, and described as such by vaalmeeki, then, also it is a routine stuff and 'nothing special' about it for us to study now, except as a 'literature on love'.

 

So raamaayaNam is not a literature o that sort. With raama, kaamam has no place. Yes, we all know 'raama' as the 'dharmam's avathaaram' of the supreme lord sreeman naaraayaNa, and has no desires for 'kaamam' and he did not indulge in kaamam.

 

We also see many other characters are targeting the 'hero raama'. There are others who target the 'heroine seethaa' with their 'kaamam', or lust or passion or intention of enjoying with her physically. So both are targeted with kaamam physically and desiring a union with them individually. And that 'kaamam' of others on the hero and the heroine really pushes the story. How that happens - That is the topic to be discussed here.

 

May be at the beginning of sreemadh raamaayaNam itself, we see a 'kaamam' laden scene.

 

Two birds – 2 krouncha pakshi – were engaging themselves in mithunam – a union, between themselves. On that enjoying pair, the hunter expresses his kaamam of having one of the birds for his feast by killing it. May be somebody may come out saying he did not feast with that bird's meat. It is natural for him to hunt – yes, that is what I call his kaamam – wish or desire, or pleasure, or enjoyment, in killing a bird by shooting out an arrow.

 

May be, 'knowingly or unknowingly' the male became the target of the hunter's kaamam. So other female bird also loses its life because of the 'kaamam' of her own, not to live separately without her life partner. And thus hunter becomes the reason with his kaamam, for the world's first slokam to be born.

 

Dear sirs and Madams, by now you may have noted that by using the word 'kaamam', it is strictly not the sexual pleasure alone. Let us continue in next post.

 

Dhasan-- Vasudevan MG